Port Scolpaig, N Uist

Our final night before taking the ferry back to Skye was wild camping near the western most point of N Uist.   Another beautiful sandy beach, with St Kilda, 60 miles away, just visible (well at least from the hill just inland)

Supper was a bit simpler than yesterday, but we always enjoy Ibrahim's fantastic organic couscous mix.  We buy it from him (Colliver foods) direct in catering sized quantities. Strongly recommended!

Berneray to Loch Euphort, N Uist

Our final paddle was 3 days from the pier at Berneray though the maze of lochs, channels and island to Loch Euphort. 

It involved some tricky tidal calculations, because some of the lochs become tidal rivers at strange times, (inevitably flowing in the inconvenient direction).

We finally arrived at the lovely Langass Lodge, where we'd booked in for dinner.  We wild camped a few minutes walk around the coast, because their B&B was, as usual, fully booked.

North Uist

For some reason, its almost impossible to find B&B's in the Outer Hebrides .  Most holiday makers seem to rent holiday cottages, or drive around in vast camping vans, so if you don't want to camp you need to book well ahead.  And even if you do find a B&B, there are few places to eat out.

With strong winds forecast we were ready for a change from wild camping, so booked into the very  new, and somewhat odd "Hebridean Huts" at Paible, North Uist. (No website yet, but not to be confused with the rather nice looking Hebridean Huts on Lewis The basic concept is probably OK .. a combination of beach hut, bird hide and double bed, and it's useful that can be rented by the night, but the details need a little more development.  Currently it feels a bit like camping in a muddy farmyard.

Tom checks out the washroom facilities.  The blue door behind the hut is North Uist's fire station

Crabhadail

At last we get to Crabhadail, but on foot not by kayak.

Lovely beach, huge lazy beds (made by crofters piling up seaweed on the machair to create fertile farmland)

Not a hint of swell, although the sea state was rather more dramatic out in the channel to the Island of Scarp





 

Some of the sand seems to have been washed out since the days of the Schools Hebridean Society's camp in 1965.  Theres a description of the 1965 trip here

Rhenigidale

We spent a few days at the Gatliff Hebridean Trust hostel at Rhenigdale.  Lovely place, with some nice kayaking, including exploring to find the bay where Tom camped with the Schools Hebridean Society in 1967. Maybe it was Molinganish, but that seemed too small?  Or could it have been in Rhenigidale itself? Or the bay in between?

On the second day we cycled the circuit to Tarbert, which involved some serious hill climbing.  The postman (who is now in his 80s and still lives in Rhenigidale) used to walk this 3 times a week to deliver the post.

Eilean Melasta

With a promising (ie force 3-4) forecast we set out from the end of the road at Melasta to kayak down to Crabhadail, where Tom camped in 1965 with the Schools Hebridean Society, and acquired his love of wild camping in Scotland.

We stopped for lunch on the nominally swell-sheltered East facing beach of Eilean Melasta .. then found the swell was a bit too tricky for us to feel confident about getting off again.  We decided to enjoy the island and spend the night there.

 The Machair (the special sandy grassland of Western coasts) on Eilean Melasta was covered with masses of spectacular hairy caterpillars.

  

We think its the Garden Tiger Moth, which is increasingly endangered, but clearly likes it here on the machair (and our kettle)

In the morning we carried the kayak over the headland to launch at a quieter beach

Callanish

Stunning 5000 year old monuments litter the islands.  The Hebrides seem bleak now, but back then the seas would have been full of fish and shellfish, and the land covered in woodland.

The Hebrides would also have been on the main sea trade route from Orkney down to Ireland and the west coasts of France and Spain.